


looking at you through the glass (don't know how much time has passed)

by legobatmanshusband



Category: Doctor Who, Torchwood
Genre: Audio 034: Expectant, Crossover: Doctor Who and Torchwood, Doctor Who episode: Gridlock, Episode: s04e17-e18 The End of Time, Fix-It, Gwen isn't present in this story but she gets mentioned :), Ianto Jones is a Good Boyfriend, Ianto angst, Jack Angst, Jack Harkness is the Face of Boe, M/M, Mentions of Torchwood One, Ten and Ianto rivalry, The Face of Boe - Freeform, Tosh and Owen are dead, and its implications, because i hate that scene, canon mpreg, for the end of time bit where ten is saying goodbye to jack, jack harkness is pregnant, not an mpreg fic, probably lots of timeline mistakes, references to Big Finish Torchwood One: Before the Fall, shut up, sorry :(
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:47:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26464399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/legobatmanshusband/pseuds/legobatmanshusband
Summary: " oh god ,  it feels like forever ,  but no one ever tells you that forever feels like home ,  sitting all alone inside your head . "gwen is on holiday ,  jack is pregnant ,  and an exhausted ianto is greeted by the doctor late one night , wrought with unreleased regeneration energy, and saying he owes an old friend one final request .*canon-typical character death( title + lyrics from through glass - stone sour )
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Comments: 11
Kudos: 39





	looking at you through the glass (don't know how much time has passed)

**Author's Note:**

> some background context for those who need it : this fic takes place during (or, i guess you could say, before) the big finish audio expectant. you don't need to have listened to it to read this fic. the general idea is that after tosh and owen's deaths in exit wounds, jack gets called up by an old friend, the empress of the yalnix empire, to be a surrogate for the next ruler of the empire. the yalnix cannot reproduce without surrogates, and jack takes this on because he feels guilty about his friends. gwen is sent on holiday to tenerife for a few weeks to relax. ianto looks after jack (along with the midwife, jonty) for the two weeks when jack is pregnant.
> 
> this story is also adjacent to the end of time, and is essentially a fix-it for ten's goodbye to jack, because i think the whole thing with alonso is shitty. ten is making his rounds of all his friends before he inevitably regenerates. this is the fixed goodbye for jack.
> 
> also, if you don't know, the face of boe canonically dies in the episode "gridlock" from season three of doctor who, so this story is also adjacent to that episode. the face of boe has appeared a few times before this episode, and is later revealed to be jack himself.
> 
> ( don't read if you're uncomfortable with torchwood's standard themes (i.e sexual references, swearing, etc.) or are uncomfortable with spoilers for doctor who s3, doctor who the end of time, torchwood season 2, or the torchwood big finish audio expectant, although i expect you probably wouldn't have read this far if you were )
> 
> ( also, if there are any mistakes when it comes to canon / timeline... no there aren't stfu <3 doctor who is a confusing ass show and torchwood has not regard for its timeline either. it's basically like schitt's creek when it comes to timeline flexibility. so just,,,, ignore it if the fic doesn't make sense thx )
> 
> ( also, i implore you to listen to through glass by stone sour if you haven't already. not because it's important to this fic, just cause it's a really good song. enjoy. :) )

It was creeping towards eleven o’clock, and Cardiff Bay was quiet save the nighttime traffic, distant squeals from hen nights and drunk clubbers, and the lapping of water down the tower by which Ianto Jones stood. Unbeknownst to the rest of Cardiff, however, was Torchwood Three’s massive base of operations situated right underneath the Quay. Only four living people knew of its existence, now. Gwen and Rhys, and him and Jack. There used to be six. He wasn’t thinking about that, though. He wouldn’t think about it.

Gwen was in Tenerife, on holiday. Of course, she’d initially protested to Jack’s request that she get some rest away from Wales, but in the end she’d taken the tickets, kissed both him and Ianto on the cheek, and told them to be good. To not let anything get out of control.

And then Jack had had the genius idea to get himself knocked up.

An alien baby was kicking around in Jack’s stomach. A  _ royal  _ alien baby at that. Which was just one more thing on the list of stressful things that Ianto had to think about. On some level, he was tired of being the only thing keeping Torchwood going through the recent losses. But he was also glad of the distraction. Most nights, Ianto worked himself until he felt like he would die of exhaustion, and then would pass out and wake up hours later in his flat or on the sofa in the Hub. It was unhealthy, and of course he knew that, but it was also the only way he could keep out all the thoughts of Tosh and Owen.

He wasn’t thinking about them. About Tosh's agonized expression as she bled out on the floor of the medical bay. About learning that Owen’s zombified body had dissolved in radioactive waste. About the fact that two incredibly intelligent people had lost their lives and he was still alive. Somehow, once again, He’d survived when he should have been the first to go. 

Ianto felt so horribly tired. His body ached with lack of rest. 

His eyes didn’t seem so blue anymore. 

Ianto knew that Gwen was the one who deserved the break. After all, this was the first major loss she’d suffered because of Torchwood. Ianto had been through this all before. Losing his coworkers, his friends. Losing Yvonne and Lisa and Guleraana and Kieran and all his closest friends. Leaving Soren behind. Losing his life in London, and starting a new one here, only for it to be torn away from him until all he had left was Gwen and Jack.

And now he was standing by the water tower, smoking a cigarette he’d stashed in the hub (where Jack wouldn’t find the packet), having just responded to a rift reading- a stray weevil this time, in an alleyway on Queen street. Just a teenager, Ianto estimated. He’d sedated and dragged the weevil into one of the lower-level cells, and provided it with some water and what he and Gwen had aptly named “Weevil food”.

There would be no more deaths in Torchwood. Not just yet. Not if they could help it.

It was at this point, as Ianto gazed out at the water, letting smoke trail from the slender object hanging loosely between his fingers, that he heard a sound. A whooshing sort of sound, like a wind blowing back and forth through his ears. He felt a breeze rustle his hair and his coat, and he turned around to see a familiar blue box. A man stepped out of it, looking intentionally disheveled and wearing the oldest, rattiest pair of converse shoes Ianto had ever seen.

Of course he recognized the man. He’d been there, at Canary Wharf. He’d seen the destruction.

This was The Doctor. _Jack’s_ Doctor. The one he’d run off with, leaving Ianto alone with Gwen and Owen and Tosh. The Welshman felt a mix of emotions gnaw at his stomach as he thought of what might happen if Jack did that again. If he left Ianto and Gwen alone in Cardiff.

If Ianto would ever be able to forgive him for something like that.

“Those things will kill you,” The Doctor remarked, coming to stand beside Ianto as he gazed toward the bay. Ianto sighed, took a long drag as if to prove a point, blew it out, then stamped the cigarette out on the pavement.

“Maybe it’s for the best,” he retorted quietly.

“You’re Ianto Jones.”

  
“And you’re the infamous Doctor. You know our organization was founded around protecting the Earth from  _ you _ . I’m at liberty to take you in. Lock you up.”   
  
“But you’re not gonna do that, are you?” he asked.

  
“No,” Ianto replied simply, turning to face the other man. He looked carefully at The Doctor. At his objectively handsome face, messy hair, trench coat and pinstripe suit that didn’t quite fit him right. He tried to see what could have driven Jack to run away with him. Jack had told him, at some point after his return, that The Doctor had had a different face when Jack had first met him. That he was older, with cropped hair and a leather jacket.

Ianto knew all about The Doctor’s tendency to change his face. About his supposed immortality, his TARDIS, all of it. It was something you were briefed on during your first day at Torchwood One.

And Ianto had definitely done some research of his own, as well.

“Jack’s not here, you know. He’s at home, and he’s in no state to go flying off into the stars.”

The Doctor wrinkled his nose. “What did he do this time?”   
  
“He’s got himself up the duff, if you must know,” Ianto replied, straightening out his coat and turning to gaze at the water again. “Two of our operatives were killed recently, and Jack’s taken it upon himself to bring new life into the world.”

  
“Wow,” The Doctor said. “Is it yours?”   
  
Ianto grimaced. “No, It’s the next Yalnix Emperor. He’s become a surrogate.”

“Oh, right. Lovely race, the Yalnix. That whole ‘endless war’ thing is a bit much, though. Might have caused that, actually.”   
  
“I don’t doubt it.”   
  


They stood in silence for a moment, before Ianto inhaled and gave The Doctor a questioning look. “What are you doing here?”   
  
“I need your help.”   
  
Ianto scoffed. “If you think I’m about to hop into that little sex-box of yours and travel the stars, you’ve got another thing coming, Doctor. I happen to be the only person keeping Cardiff from falling into the sea at the moment. And I’m not leaving Jack here.”   
  


“Just one trip. I have an… old friend who’s made a final request. It involves one Ianto Jones. Just one trip, and I’ll bring you home.”   
  
“With all due respect, sir, I’m aware of your shotty TARDIS piloting. I’m friends with Martha Jones. It’s Jack, isn’t it?”   
  
“What?”   
  
“Your friend. It’s Jack, right? He’s dying somewhere in the distant future and he’s asked me to come say goodbye.”   
  
“How did you know that?”

“I don’t matter enough to anyone else to be part of a final request. I work for Torchwood, Doctor, I’m not as stupid as you think.”

The Doctor’s face was stony. “Will you come see him, please? I made a mistake with Jack. I owe it to him to let him see the man he loves one last time before he goes.”   
  
Ianto searched The Doctor’s face, then nodded slowly. “Okay.”

A smile stretched across the Time Lord’s face. Not quite a grin, more a smile that betrayed relief. He motioned to the TARDIS door, snapping his fingers to open them. Ianto couldn’t help smiling as he stepped inside the box, and was overwhelmed with its size. He’d never seen the TARDIS from the inside before, only heard about it from Jack, and read about it in reports. It was jarring, but he tried not to let The Doctor see that.

The Doctor raced around the console, shoving buttons and pulling levers until that whooshing noise started up again, and the cloister bells rang smoothly. Ianto grabbed onto the railing to steady himself, feeling more than a little ill, as the machine raced through the time vortex, through several million years, until it reached its destination and landed with a loud  _ thud _ .

Ianto pulled himself to his feet, straightened out his coat and tie and coughed politely.

  
“Wow.”   
  
The Doctor smiled. “Incredible, right?”

Ianto laughed a little, then rolled his eyes. “A bit.”

***

Ianto stepped out of the TARDIS into a completely alien landscape. This wasn’t, admittedly, his first time on an alien planet, but it still felt exhilarating. New air in his lungs. New ground beneath his feet. He was Ianto Jones, and he was standing on a different planet than the one he was born on.

“This is the city of New New York,” The Doctor explained. “Millions of years in your future, after the death of Earth. Humanity moved across the stars, to this place. I visited it twice before. Once with Rose, and once with Martha. Martha and I from the past are somewhere around here. We need to be quick, we don’t want to mess up the timeline.”   
  
“Understood,” said Ianto absently as he gazed out one of the windows at the car-like vehicles whizzing through the air, and the skyscrapers reaching toward the stars, piercing the clouds like kebab skewers.

The Doctor led Ianto into an adjacent room and stopped him before he could go any further. “Just so you know, Ianto, Jack is at the end of his life right now, and he looks a little…. Well he looks a little different than what you’re used to.”   
  
Ianto frowned. “Okay…?”   
  


“Just figured I’d prepare you,” The Doctor said, motioning for Ianto to enter the next room.

  
Ianto wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting to see in the room. A hospital bed, perhaps, with a very, very old man lying on it, hooked up to wires and tubes. He certainly hadn’t been expecting to see a glass tank with a massive head in it, with canyon-deep wrinkles and wise-looking eyes. 

But he knew those eyes. So he stepped closer. A strange feeling twisted in his stomach, seeing Jack like this. How did he get like this? How old was he now? Would he even remember Ianto if he saw him?

Ianto knelt down slowly in front of the glass tank, as if making any sudden movement might harm the presence inside. 

“Jack?” He asked, his voice low, barely a breath. 

In his head, Ianto could hear Jack’s voice. Telepathy. He sounded so old. So very, very old. 

**_Ianto Jones._ **

“Woah,” Ianto yelped, clutching the side of his head. Then he laughed, just slightly. “That is all sorts of weird.”

**_Sorry_ ** .

“It’s okay,” the young man replied softly, a smile spreading across his face. “Someone’s gotten a bit older since the last time I saw him.”

Laughter.  **_And yet you look every bit as beautiful as the day I met you_ ** **.**

The Welshman felt himself blush. “Oh, you terrible flirt. You look handsome too, Jack.”

**_They call me the Face of Boe._ **

“Well that’s not pretentious at all, is it?” Ianto deadpanned, allowing his fingers to come up and spread upon the glass. He could almost feel Jack’s hand against his again, like nothing had changed. 

**_I never forgot you._ **

Ianto’s eyes snapped up. “What?”

**_I never forgot you. Even after such a long life. So many people loved, you were one of the only names I remembered. You made me promise_ ** **.**

“Oh, Jack...”

**_I’m so glad you’re here. You always were the one to look after me. Right after I woke up from death, I always saw you there. And it made me so happy. You’re the first person I’d choose to stay with me till the end. I love you, Ianto. Don’t ever forget that._ **

The young man was taken aback. “I love you too, Jack. I know we won’t…  _ haven’t _ had that much time together on this Earth, but I hope... you were happy... after I was gone?”

**_One can never be truly happy without the love of their life._ **

Ianto didn’t know what to say to that. He’d mentally considered Jack the love of his life up until the end, fully aware that the love was not totally reciprocated. He hadn’t realized what providing constant care and affection during his short lifespan had done to the immortal.

“How did I- er… how did I go, in the end?”

**_I can’t tell you that, because it hasn’t happened yet._ **

Ianto frowned. He didn’t need to ask if it had been Torchwood. Of course it had been Torchwood.  _ Would be _ Torchwood. There was no other option for him.

**_I’m sorry you have to see me like this._ **

“Stop it. You’re gorgeous.”

**_I missed being pretty, though. After awhile, nobody even thought about sleeping with me._ **

“Maybe it’s cause you’re just a big face, now.”

  
  
**_Never underestimate what I can do with just a face, Ianto Jones_ ** _. _

“Oh, yeah,” Ianto laughed. “My Jack is still in there.”

**_He never left._ **

In his head, Ianto could hear the Face of Boe making a noise, almost like choking. He sounded agonized, like it was all he could do not to scream out in pain.

  
**_Thank you, Doctor. For bringing him here_ ** , the Face said, this time directing it to the somber looking Time Lord standing behind Ianto.

  
“It’s the least I could do. No one wants to be alone at the end. And you’re not the only one who’s ending.”   
  
**_Regeneration?_ **

“There’s no way around it.”   
  
**_Good luck, Doctor_ ** _. _

“Likewise,” the Doctor replied, and then held his hand out to Ianto. “We need to go. My past self and Martha will be here soon. Along with Novice Hame, who I really don’t think wants to see me again. We don’t want to mess up the timeline.”   
  
“B-but-” Ianto protested, his hand still firmly pressed to the Face of Boe’s glass tank.

**_Go, Ianto. Go live your life. Don’t waste a second of it. I’ll see you again soon_ ** _.  _ **_I love you._ **

“Jack, I-” Ianto felt hot tears sprouting from his eyes and rolling down his cheeks.

**_You’ve still got me in the past. Don’t let go of him, whatever you do. He needs you. Having kids is always such a nightmare._ **

“How did you know-”

**_Telepathy works both ways, Ianto. And, for the record, There are certain positions even a giant face can’t achieve, but I do appreciate the enthusiasm_ ** _. _

Blushing furiously, Ianto pushed himself to his feet, feeling sickness rise in his stomach. He didn’t want to leave Jack, not when he was so close to the end. Ianto didn't want Jack to be alone. He hoped, subconsciously, that he wouldn’t be alone either, when he finally went. That Jack would be there, and that they’d have his final moments together.

The Doctor grabbed Ianto’s arm, began dragging him away from the tank. Jack screamed in his head, and he started to sob.

Ianto crumpled to the metal floor of the TARDIS, which reminded him, oddly, of the floor in the hub, heaving breaths and trying desperately not to throw up. Seeing Jack’s last death was not the kind of stress he needed to add to this week. He couldn’t stop thinking about the Face of Boe, thinking about how Jack must have gotten there. How many years it must have taken. How much time he’d had to forget Ianto and Cardiff and 2009 and Earth, and the fact that he  _ didn’t. _

“D-Doctor, y-you can’t! You h-have to take me back! H-he’s dying!” Ianto cried, viciously, but The Doctor just gazed at him sadly.

  
“Immortality doesn’t mean living forever,” he said in a soft voice, kneeling down so he and Ianto were at eye-level. “It means watching worlds turn to dust while you grapple with the fact that you’re the only person who will be there at the end. And you try so hard to keep people close to you, but in the end, you just infect them. And they die. They die and they leave and they break your heart. But you know what, Ianto Jones?”   
  
Ianto gazed at him, eyes wide like a deer in a headlights, looking like he was about to throttle the Time Lord.

  
“What?”   
  
“Jack Harkness never cared to play by immortality’s rules.”

Then, The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out a small white capsule. Ianto knew what it was immediately.   
  
“N-no, you can’t! Doctor, please don’t, Doctor!”

But as his mouth opened, screaming for The Doctor to stop, he shoved the pill between Ianto’s lips and a few moments later, everything disappeared.

***

“Oh, christ,” Ianto muttered to himself as he sat up in bed, feeling sore and just a little bit hungover. His eyelids were dry, like he’d been crying, and he was still wearing bits of his suit, though the coat, tie, and shoes were strewn across the bedroom floor. 

Surely he hadn’t gone out drinking. Not when he had Jack to look after, and all of Cardiff to maintain. He was bloody Torchwood, he didn’t have time to go to pubs. Not with the month it had been.

As Ianto tried to piece together the events of the previous night and found that he didn’t remember anything past returning to the hub for a rift reading-which had turned out to be a weevil spotting on Queen street, he remembered- he surmised that he must have come straight home and fallen asleep.

Jack stirred, still sleeping beside him, and clutching his stomach protectively. Ianto let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding and slid out of bed silently. There was something in the back of his head, a nagging feeling that made him feel just a little bit sick. 

Tiptoeing to the kitchen, Ianto put on the kettle to make some tea for himself and Jack. He didn’t have the heart to make himself coffee when Jack was in the state he was.

And as the water started to boil, Ianto began to wonder if anything else had happened the previous night.

A few minutes later, Jack waddled in from the other room, looking terribly disheveled, and- Ianto noted with a wry smile- really cute. He met Jack with a sweet kiss and pressed a cup of tea into his hands.

“God, what would I do without you, Ianto?” Jack asked groggily as he sipped the tea. “You’re such an angel.”   
  
Ianto very distinctly  _ did not  _ think about the fact that the proper term wasn’t “would”, it was “will”, and started making breakfast.   
  



End file.
